of course, there's the prisons, too. when the pentagon was hit on september 11th, 2001, nearly one-third of the usable office space in that, the largest office building in the world, was damaged by the impact of the hijacked plane, and by the fire that burned thereafter. the pentagon was completely rebuilt, less than one year after the 9/11 attack. understanding how we were changed by 9/11 takes some analysis and some understanding, but some of it is just physical. some of it you can just see. thinking about how we have changed since 9/11, it's almost like the more granular, the more specific, the more physical you get the more you understand what happened. we think about 9/11 having an address, as being lower manhattan, as being the pentagon, as being shanksville, pennsylvania, but it's really changed the world that we are in. >> it's really very physical. some people think about the war on terrorism as a concept. i have lived these places the last 10 years. there are new bases. there's new national security infrastructure that has been created. and since 9/11, u.s. foreign

policy, domestic policy to a degree, has really been driven by fear. >> is it a disconnect between the understandable desire to prevent another 9/11, to keep us safe from something like that ever happening again? is it a disconnect from that desire to be safe and what would actually make us safe? did we outfit national security in a way that made us feel better but did not make us safer? >> al qaeda has been decimated, and a lot of the al qaeda leaders, including bin laden, are dead. but are we safer as a nation? look at the money being spent. and money being spent is real threat. if you accumulate debt, debt is what brings down empires. >> well, it's a difference between safety and strength. >> well put. >> if you can be provoked into reacting in a way that prevents something like that from happening again, but that also causes you to spend yourself into weakness, or to make yourself weak in other ways or to remove the things about you that made you a desirable and proud place in the first place. >> if you swing wildly at

something and you have exhausted yourself, did they get you to compromise on your national -- your strategic strength in order to react to them? maybe you have. and then look at what the impact has had on the real people fighting this war -- the military, for example. this has been a generation, a generation has come that has been defined by the wars in iraq, the wars in afghanistan. the men, the women, their families, these two wars have been all consuming, deployment after deployment, and that also has a toll. since 9/11, more than 2 million american troops have been deployed to afghanistan and iraq. on the upside, america's armed forces have probably never been more combat-ready and more experienced. but these were not training exercises. the costs have been heavy. nearly 6,500 troops killed,

almost ten times that many wounded. and were the thousands of patrols and gunfights necessary to keep america safe? what did they really accomplish? may 2010 in argandah valley in southern afghanistan. it's rich farmland. it's also a taliban stronghold. charlie company, second of the 508, lives on a tiny base called combat outpost nolan. the base is a walled adobe farmhouse. it's home to about 150 soldiers from the 82nd airborne division. they patrol the fields, but it's so dangerous the soldiers climb over mud walls because the main trails are seeded with ieds. >> make sure you get security to this intersection. >> sergeant louis loftus from akron, ohio, is often the point

man on patrol. he volunteers for the highly risky job. because he's up front, if there's an ied in the ground, he'll most likely see it first. or step on it. >> i really don't think about it. it's just our job. you know, to get done what needs to get done. i try not to think about, you know, what's going to happen if i step on an ied or something, you know, or landmine or whatever. you know, you just don't really think about it. >> loftus is a two-time combat veteran with a previous tour in afghanistan. he's only 23. >> all right. keep going. >> and the young man is in love with a girl back home named deidre. back on base, loftus looks at her photographs, waiting for the day they'll get married. but there are still many months to go before loftus is home, and

many risks. one of his friends was just killed by an ied. the stress and pent-up emotion come pouring out. >> right now, i'm kind of numb to it, to be honest. i just don't really feel much. i pray for his family. i pray for his soul, you know, that -- yes. i try not to think about it, because when you think about it, then i get like this. and it's not -- you know, i don't -- yes. so, yes, you know, everyone deals with it in their own way. i try to hide it. i try not to think about it because i have to stay 100%. you know, i've got to keep a

good example for the other soldiers. i'm sorry. >> the next day, loftus and the other troops walk to a memorial for the soldier killed by the ied, and pay their final respects. then they make a somber march back to base. (gunfire) >> as soon as they enter the gate, the taliban attack. >> get me up there, get me up there! >> the ambush is timed to catch the troops off guard. soldiers rush to the roof of the outpost and fire back. (gunfire) >> from here, they have the best view, the best chance of keeping the taliban from storming the base. the taliban fire an rpg at a guard tower on the roof. this place is under heavy attack.

already one soldier has been severely injured. the injured soldier is down, out of the fight. but other soldiers on the roof keep fighting, even though several of them are also injured and dazed. twenty taliban fighters are so close the troops have to launch small mortars nearly straight up, practically firing on top of themselves. ammunition is running low, and it's worse than anyone first thought. as the battle rages, the soldiers find two more americans both severely wounded. under fire, the soldiers load the injured men onto stretchers and carry them off the roof. with so many men hurt, loftus moves in, he takes up a machine gun, and lays down suppressive fire. after 30 minutes, the fighting stops. a medevac helicopter carries away the wounded.

the americans have won the day. but why? for nearly a decade, there have been fights like this one repeated in iraq's fallujah and sadr city, and countless other iraqi and afghan towns the soldiers had never heard of before they deployed. but they know them now, and the battles stay with the troops. coming up -- >> if you ask me right now if i could sign a dotted line and say get everyone out of afghanistan, i wouldn't hesitate. i would say it's not worth one more soldier getting killed. >> reflecting on the cost of war while adjusting to life back home. the financial obstacles military families face, we understand. at usaa, we know military life is different. we've been there. that's why every bit of financial advice we offer is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families.

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in november 2010, sergeant louis loftus is back home in akron, ohio, after fighting in

afghanistan for a year. he is moving in with the girl he loves, deidre. >> it's really dirty. it looks like it's been worn. >> unpacking his gear for the last time, loftus is getting out of the army.orn. >> unpacking his gear for the last time, loftus is getting out of the armrn. >> unpacking his gear for the last time, loftus is getting out of the armn. >> unpacking his gear for the last time, loftus is getting out of the arm. >> unpacking his gear for the last time, loftus is getting out of the armt. >> unpacking his gear for the last time, loftus is getting out of the armo. >> unpacking his gear for the last time, loftus is getting out of the arm . >> unpacking his gear for the last time, loftus is getting out of the armw. >> unpacking his gear for the last time, loftus is getting out of the arma. >> unpacking his gear for the last time, loftus is getting out of the armr. >> unpacking his gear for the last time, loftus is getting out of the army. >> what? yes, every one? i don't think these have been washed since i was over there. >> loftus is settling into his new life. >> how are you? good to see you. >> it's good to see you. it's been a long time. he calls his service the greatest accomplishment of his life. >> i loved being in afghanistan. that probably sounds funny, but, you know, it was such a good experience, and i fought for my country, and i'm proud of what i did. i'm proud of the guys i fought with and the people i met. and that is going to be part of me forever. >> but loftus has doubts about the mission. he was sent to protect people in

the argandah, but they wouldn't cooperate. >> the average 45-year-old male in the argandah river valley doesn't want to talk to us, doesn't want to look at us. some of us feel like it's like we're bait. we are just walking around until we get shot. it's like, really, what are we doing? if you asked me right now if i could sign on a dotted line and get everyone out of afghanistan, i wouldn't hesitate. i would say it's not worth one more soldier getting killed. if you asked me right this second, sign this paper, we'll bring them all home, i would do it without hesitation, you know? but i also feel that what i did wasn't a waste. i'm just saying that maybe it's time to get our guys home. >> the white house says that afghanistan is no longer an al qaeda sanctuary, and that it has a plan to stabilize the afghan government and bring the troops home. but at least afghanistan was linked to 9/11. the taliban did host osama bin laden. invading iraq, on the other hand, had nothing to do with 9/11, despite claim after claim by the white house that it did. >> the liberation of iraq is a

crucial advance in the campaign against terror. we have removed an ally of al qaeda. and cut off a source of terrorist funding. >> for some of those hunting bin laden, like the cia's hank crumpton, now retired, iraq remains a head snap. many at the cia never believed in the link between saddam hussein and 9/11. >> the majority of the people in the u.s. thought that iraq had some responsibility for 9/11 which was not the case at all. in fact, if you look at saddam hussein, he was a secular despot. he was a tyrant. and he saw al qaeda not as an ally but as a threat. >> did you feel pressure to come up with intelligence that fit this narrative that iraq was somehow working with al qaeda? >> no. i do recall -- this was in the spring of 2001, a query that came from the white house, about

the alliance between saddam hussein and al qaeda. and i remember at the time that that sounded so absurd. and i remembered speaking with an analyst about it, and dismissing it out of hand. >> when this memo came down, saying give us some intelligence or what do you know about this alliance between saddam and al qaeda, your response was basically, what alliance? >> exactly. >> nbc terrorism analyst mike sheehan has served as the state department's director of counterterrorism. >> i can think of a good dozen reasons why saddam hussein should have been kicked out of iraq. dating back to all of the atrocities he conducted in the region against his own population. nevertheless, in my view, as a terrorism expert, i did not feel there was a justification in terms of counterterrorism to invade iraq. >> the united states sent 2 million troops to war, but in the end, osama bin laden was killed by 23 american commandos acting on intelligence provided by the cia.

and bin laden was killed in pakistan, where troops were not sent in large numbers. nineteen men attacked america on 9/11. twenty-three americans killed bin laden. but in between, more than 6,000 troops would die and well over $1 trillion spent. >> we have basically doubled our defense budget in the last 10 years because 19 al qaeda operatives with box cutters hijacked planes and attacked our homeland. i think we could have been much more nuanced and specific and precise in our defense response, whether it's measures in budget or in lives. >> doubled our defense budget because 19 people with box cutters attacked us. >> right. >> so this was a major overreaction in your estimation? >> yes, i think so, particularly if you look at iraq. >> when you add up everything that has happened, all the money that was spent, all the lives that were lost, and the things that were ignored, do you think

the activities of the last ten years have made the u.s. safer, a lot safer, a little bit safer? not safer at all? >> i think our homeland is safer because of our efforts against al qaeda in particular. but i think that overall as a nation, we may be weaker. and that is because of a debt, in part because of money that we have spent in iraq and afghanistan, money that i don't think we need to spend, not to that degree. >> terrorism is an instrument of the weak. terrorism is the instrument of a weak group, al qaeda. this is a very weak organization. but it uses terror to try to attack our psyche. and if we overreact to terrorism attacks, we empower them. we embolden them. we amplify their power, and we fall into their strategy which is to create fear in our hearts. >> a strategy of turning america into a nation driven and perhaps misguided by fear.

the united states hasn't been attacked again since 9/11, but at a huge and some argued unnecessary cost. in battles fought and lives lost. coming up -- after almost a decade of combat, and billions of dollars spent on national security, are we safer? >> there has not been another attack on the united states. and that's not an accident. ques? anyone have occasional constipation,

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that makes watching tv even better. if your tv were a hot dog, zeebox would be some sort of fancy, french mustard. just like adding fancy mustard to a hotdog makes you go "woah!," zeebox adds video, info, and playalongs to spice up your favorite shows. download zeebox free and say "woah" every time you watch tv. nationally, the investment that we have made in war fighting since 9/11, the investment that we have made in the intelligence apparatus and the whole national security getting so much bigger than it was, that's money and investment that we made in that direction that we couldn't make in some other direction, that we didn't make in infrastructure, energy, education or health care or whatever you have. >> at the end of the day, bin laden and the top leaders from al qaeda were killed by institutions that existed before 9/11. they were killed by the cia. they were killed by the military. they were killed by military special operations. >> the argument, though, from

those who have defended the massive expansion, particularly in intelligence and in top secret work, say, you know, you can complain all you want about it, but there hasn't been another 9/11. and so, that proves it was worth it. >> well, there hasn't been another 9/11, and that does prove that certain things work. but that doesn't prove that the whole apparatus works. and it doesn't prove that, well, you can just keep adding more and more security. and there's also a real danger here that it's hard to take it away. and i think that's why it continues to grow, because any politician or anyone who says, well, we need to dial some of this back, suddenly is accused of being soft on terrorism.

>> there has not been another attack on the united states. and that's not an accident. >> it's a neutralizing rejoinder to any criticism of post-9/11 counterterrorism measures. or policy of any kind justified as counterterrorism. no matter what you think of what we've done, there hasn't been another 9/11. it's true, there hasn't been. there's been nothing of that magnitude in ten years. but the united states has been targeted in the past ten years over and over agaiover again. one week after the september 11 attacks, the anthrax mailings to senators' offices, media outlets, and some apparently random civilians, 17 people are infected, five die. three months after september 11, the so-called shoe bomber, al qaeda member richard reid, a british citizen, tries to blow up a u.s.-bound flight from paris, using high explosives hidden in his shoes. fellow passengers and flight attendants stop him, and reid is sentenced to life in prison. overseas in 2006, scotland yard arrests 21 men planning to kill thousands by detonating bombs on

up to 10 trans-atlantic flights from britain to the united states. >> this was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale. >> back on u.s. soil, in 2009, najibullah zazi is arrested by the fbi for a plot to carry out bombings in the new york city subway system. zazi received training in an al qaeda camp. he pleads guilty. later that year, on christmas day, umar farouk abdulmutallab unsuccessfully attempt to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear on a flight from amsterdam to detroit. he is apprehended, pleads not he is currently waiting trial. times square, the heart of new york city -- in 2010, 30-year-old pakistani american faisal shahzad attempts to detonate an improvised bomb inside his parked nissan pathfinder. the crude device fails to explode and shahzad was apprehended days later. one attack is successful and causes multiple u.s. casualties,

the largest u.s. military facility in the world, ft. hood in texas, is the site of a mass shooting by u.s. army psychiatrist, nidal malik hasan, a u.s. citizen. in touch with al qaeda clerics online, but not formally linked to any terrorist groups, hasan kills 13 u.s. army personnel and wounds 29 others before he himself is shot and paralyzed by military police. but the most deadly post-9/11 terrorist attack take place overseas, bali, in october 2002, 202 people killed. madrid in march 2004, 191 people killed. beslan in russia, 334 people killed, including 186 children. london, july 2005, 52 people killed. mumbai, november 2008, 164 people killed. none of these major post-9/11 attacks was directly linked to al qaeda.

that is if inspiration doesn't count as a link. but one alleged plot to carry out coordinated attacks in the u.k., france, and germany, a plot thought to have been ordered by osama bin laden himself, is foiled in september 2010. it's discovered through international intelligence sharing. in the face of continued real threats, it's also true that some of the supposedly thwarted terrorist attacks post-9/11 essentially were symptoms created by the cure, plots that arguably would never have come into being without counterterrorism law enforcement themselves suggesting targets, providing means, facilitating aspiring terrorists acts of furtherance that they would not have achieved on their own but for which they could be prosecuted. in 2009, after back-to-back mistrials, five men from liberty city, one of miami's poorest neighborhoods, are convicted on terror-related charges after trying to team up with al qaeda, even though they seemed to have

no clue how to do that. their only contact with al qaeda is with the government informant pretending to be associated with the group. they claim entrapment. it's a defense that has never worked in a terror-related case since 9/11. later that same year, federal officers again pose as members of a terrorist sleeper cell. they provide this 19-year-old hosam smadi of dallas, texas, with what he thinks are chemicals to build a bomb. smadi attempts to detonate the fake bomb in the basement of a dallas skyscraper. in 2010, smadi pleads guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. he is sentenced to 24 years in prison. as hyper-funded counterterrorism law enforcement reaches as far as possible and then some to find and disrupt and in some cases conjure terrorist plots, the newly created department of homeland security, a department consolidating 22 previous agencies representing the largest increase in the size of the federal government since world war ii, is a product of the 9/11 commission's findings. and as the federal government

grows in response to 9/11, so does a government-funded security gravy train. getting yourself listed in the national asset database of terror targets becomes a way to attract government funding. auditors of the national asset database find more than 1,300 casinos, more than 160 water parks, nearly 160 cruise ships, nearly 250 jails, more than 700 mortuaries, nearly 600 nursing homes. also listed as targets of terror, old mcdonald's petting zoo near huntsville, alabama. the mule day parade held in columbia, tennessee, to celebrate mules. and the amish country popcorn factory in berne, indiana. in fact, the state of indiana listed nearly 9,000 potential terrorism targets. that's 50 percent more than the

state of new york, more than twice as many as california. five years after 9/11, by the government's own very political figuring, the hoosier state is the most target rich state in the nation. if any rational sense of proportion in identifying terrorism targets had been sacrificed to politics and simple greed, there may have been no hope from the beginning for a sense of proportion in identifying real potential terrorists and terrorist tactics. coming up -- america's collateral damage in our own war on terror. >> it was the darkest, most harrowing ordeal myself or my family ever had to experience. aww man. [ male announcer ] returns are easy with free pickup from the u.s. postal service. we'll even drop off boxes if you need them. visit usps.com pay, print, and have it picked up for free. any time of year. ♪ nice sweater. thank you.

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good day, i'm veronica de la cr cruz. the medical competitor says all children shot in a connecticut elementary school were shot multiple times.

president obama will participate in a vigil for the victims. hillary clinton will not testify this week at a hearing on ben gaza ji still recovering from a fall and a concussion. let's veronica de la cruz. the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks were airline passengers, armed with weapons that were legal to bring onboard those planes. their travel history, their radical ties, their training, their dry runs, all red flags. but ones that had not signaled the system enough to stop them before the attack. what would the next red flags look like? and how would we find them? the lasting impact on daily life legacy of 9/11 for most americans is a new normal, a new normal of intrusion. the sacrifice of some privacy and some civil liberties, and in some cases our dignity, in the name of national security.

in november 2001, president bush signs a law creating the transportation security administration. the new mega-agency, the department of homeland security, would re-side over the air travel safety now, mott the department of transportation. bag and suitcase contents scrutinized, shoes off, jackets off, luggage locks and lighters gone. liquids limited to tiny containers. laptops out of their bags, explosive detecting swabs, metal detectors like we used to have but also puffer machines and body scans -- and really detailed body scans. intrusion. intrusion by means the public at least knows about, but also intrusion by means kept secret. despite federal laws limiting the security agency from collecting only foreign communications, in 2002,

president bush expands more or less eavesdropping on u.s. citizens within the united states. that directive remained secret until "the new york times" exposes it in 2005. a year later, the program is ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge. but the government appeals the decision, and wins. bank accounts, credit cards, email, phone calls, business records, library records -- all subject to government inspection in new and often secret ways. the around the law extraordinary intrusion powers previously reserved for america's spies abroad, for the black arts of the intelligence world, are now put in the hands of law enforcement. the uniting and strengthening america by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism act of 2002, better known as the usa patriot act, tears down many of the walls constructed over the years between law enforcement and spying, walls designed to protect american citizens from being spied on by our own government, walls designed ultimately to protect the presumption of innocence --

walls that came tumbling down on brandon mayfield. when did you first have a sense hat you and your family might have been subject to direct surveillance by the government? >> there were footprints on the floor. that were bigger than any shoe size that we had. so, we could only surmise that somebody had been in the house. >> mayfield and his wife, mona, were leading a quiet suburban life with their children outside of portland, oregon. but in may 2004, after weeks of what was clumsily intended to be secret government search and surveillance, federal authorities come knocking on mayfield's door. >> i said, if you have any questions to ask me, put them to me in writing -- and i could tell right away that wasn't going to make them go away. >> in march 2004, a terrorist attack on trains in madrid, spain, had killed 191 people. spanish police found a

fingerprint near the scene on a bag of detonators. they sent a photocopy of that print to the fbi. the fbi decided that that fingerprint matched brandon mayfield. >> they started actually to physically, forcibly making their way into my office. and they proceeded to forcibly handcuff me. >> while you were being taken into custody at your office, were they also at your house? >> they had a search warrant at my house. my wife was home. they had insinuated that i was a terrorist. >> meanwhile, you had been taken into custody, did your family know where you were? >> no. >> with federal prosecutors pledging to get a conviction, mayfield's legal team grows more concern about his status. >> i was arrested under the material witness statute, created to protect witnesses. but the attorney general's office just flipped it on its head after 9/11, and started using it as an investigative tool. in other words, to detain somebody without rights, without probable cause as they continue to gather more information.

>> you were never charged with anything though? >> i was never charged at that point. >> had you ever been to spain? >> no. >> do you speak spanish? >> no, my daughter does. and at that time that they were poring records in our house and documents, they found some of my daughter's spanish homework. >> to be clear, though, when they say they confiscated spanish language materials from your house, that was your daughter's spanish homework? >> yes. >> as mayfield's legal team prepares his defense, they also learn what else had been used to justify his arrest beyond that latent fingerprint. >> virtually everything that was cited as a reason to arrest me, had to do with my being a muslim or associating with muslims. i was married to mona mayfield, aka mohammad, an egyptian national. i attended a local mosque. one can only surmise one of the reasons i was arrested is because i was muslim. and there was this insinuation that somehow being a muslim

meant that you are a criminal element. >> declaring his innocence, mayfield is incarcerated for two weeks on 24-hour lockdown and under constant surveillance. with federal agents claiming a match on the fingerprint, despite major doubts by spanish authorities, a federal judge rules in favor of temporarily releasing mayfield. false id in law enforcement, has always happened. post-9/11 with the powers of the patriot act and some of the other expanded powers that the government took, did false id become a more dangerous thing? >> there are certain rights that were demanded by the people and guaranteed to us. and one of those is the fourth amendment to privacy, which essentially says you're to be free against unreasonable searches and seizures, and no warrant shall be issued but upon probable cause, particularly describing the place, person or thing to be seized. and it is seriously under attack. >> prior to the patriot act of 2001, guidelines for search and

surveillance are spelled out by the foreign intelligence surveillance act of 1978. it allows for secret surveillance only to gather foreign intelligence. >> the patriot act amended that, and it seemed like a slight, innocuous change. but it said you could get a secret warrant to do a secret search so long as the significant purpose was to gain foreign intelligence. the wall that was breached is the one that undermined you and i, american's, rights. >> ultimately, the case is dismissed against brandon mayfield, who later sues the federal government. his legal challenge of the patriot act is dismissed. but federal authorities do issue two formal apologies and mayfield is eventually awarded a monetary settlement. >> i grew up in kansas, so a handshake and an apology mean something to me. >> you reflect on what this decade has been like, how would you describe the overall experience?

>> it was the darkest, most harrowing ordeal on myself or my family ever had to experience. to quote benjamin franklin, "those who would give up liberty for security will lose both and deserve neither." >> coming up -- the business of warning america. >> folks, these are terrorists. they come kill your kids. ♪ these are... [ male announcer ] marie callender's puts everything you've grown to love about sunday dinner into each of her pot pies. tender white meat chicken and vegetables in a crust made from scratch. marie callender's. it's time to savor.

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the war on terrorism conceptually is a hard idea, because terrorism is a tactic. but as we know, it has translated into real war in iraq and afghanistan and in other countries around the globe. it has also translated into a sort of war footing, war mentality domestically, even in terms of law enforcement. >> it hasn't just stayed in iraq or afghanistan or pakistan. it has come back to the united states.

the same idea of us versus them, that we're looking on patrol for terrorists, has come back to domestic american policing as well. and who's giving the training that police officers in the united states are receiving? there is an entire circuit of experts hired with national security money who are being paid to train the police force, train the military, and some of these people have ideas that are a little bit extreme. and some of them are -- they're popular within the police force. some of them have been accused but they are very busy.

it's mardi gras, march 2011, in mobile, alabama -- 100,000 people line the avenues to see the floats and the parade. for the local police, it's a big event. >> we have more going on today than we will any other day of the year. >> but even in small american cities, 9/11 has changed the way police operate, think, and who's training them. the cops know how to handle mardi gras. but they don't know much about terrorism. so, the mobile police department is bringing in an expert from out of town to teach them. >> y'all listen to me. it's a mean old world. i don't have to tell you, you're cops. >> he is a retired army lieutenant colonel named dave grossman. >> what's your plan? >> a colorful speaker with high energy. >> like, whoa, what was that? >> grossman theatrically tears his notes. >> you will read 100 military manuals. >> he wants to get his audience's attention for what he believes is the most important message in america today. >> we can have all the warning in the world. >> nine-eleven was just the beginning.

>> folks, these are terrorists. they don't piss in your water. they don't sprinkle -- they come kill your kids. >> we turn to the tragic events of the past 24 hours in russia. >> one of grossman's main theories is that al qaeda will carry out simultaneous attacks on american children. he says the horrific attack in beslan, russia, in 2004 was a trial run for america. more than 300 hostages, many of them children, were killed when militants took over the russian primary school. >> i pray with all my heart, i fear some dark morning across america, not once but multiple times cross america, cops will pull up behind the school bus parked on the shoulder of a country road. they'll walk on the school bus to find every kid dead. it will destroy our way of life. >> grossman says local police and all americans must be armed and ready for commando-style battles when terrorists hit schools in small town usa. >> absolutely serious, every cop here in america needs a smoke grenade. >> to be safer, grossman also wants schools to have armed guards, classroom doors locked and teachers armed to shoot

terrorists. >> and folks, we've had armed teachers at american schools for over a decade. the state of utah has been doing it for over a decade. it's a county by county thing. the sheriffs are making the calls. one sheriff brought me out to train his whole county. >> the police in mobile are captivated by grossman's talk. >> i've been in law enforcement 25 years. this is the best training i've had in 25 years of law enforcement. >> he's brought us back to the basics of always being aware that you never know when something going to happen, but you've got to be prepared. >> just keep your mind open. >> grossman is one of america's most prolific speakers -- 300 days of lectures a year. he's taught police in all 50 states, the coast guard, even the u.s. forest service. grossman is not a fringe radical. his book "on killing," won critical acclaim in the 1990s for exploring the psychological effects of war.

it's required reading by the u.s. marine corps. and he's invited to some of the military's most high-profile places. at fort leavenworth, kansas, in january 2011, grossman draws a crowd of about thousands officers at the army's command and general staff college. >> good afternoon. >> the army considered grossman, who once taught at west point, an expert in resilience. it's a buzz word in the military which after a decade of war is spending millions on counseling and suicide prevention programs. >> the army has been putting --- investing so much effort into building people physically for years. we haven't put the same amount of effort into building our soldiers mentally and emotionally. >> but grossman thinks america's last decade of wars has made the military stronger. most of these officers served in iraq or afghanistan. he tells them the threat of post-traumatic stress disorder is exaggerated by the media.

>> we're calling everybody and their brother ptsds. if you look carefully, you see symptoms of ptsd. like saying somebody five pound overweight symptoms of obesity.overweight symptoms of obesity. >> grossman also talked to the officers' families how they must be on the lookout for terrorists coming to their children's schools while their spouses are deployed. >> between bombs in parking lot to killers in the school, it's entirely possible to kill 100, 200, 300, 400 kids in the schools tomorrow morning. god forbid. >> it's important for me to know that she knows the realities of what it is that i do and threats that are out there. >> it helps me to do my job better and to support him in what he does. >> for grossman, this is a mission and a living. he's paid about $4,000 for his lectures and sells his books. but some of the officers at leavenworth aren't convinced.

>> he's definitely interested in selling books. >> he's got almost kind of conflicting interest it seems. he's also got a product he's selling. >> that product is something the military and teachers across america are willing to buy. atlantic city, new jersey, june 2011. >> so, you don't think it's a scare tactic? >> no, no. you always have to be ready for the worst. >> some of the things he talks about, locking the school doors, armed guards at schools, that wasn't the kind of childhood i had and it certainly wasn't the kind of childhood you had. is that the kind of childhood you think we should have for children? >> i'm not to say whether we should or shouldn't have, the reality of it is it's here. the times have changed, it's a new game we're playing nowadays. what exactly are you training

people for? what are you training them to do? >> mental preparation for combat. >> since 9/11, an industry has been borne of security consultants, of trainers, lecturers, and you are a part of that. >> what you're seeing is a nation that's preparing itself for the threat and the possibilities. gun purchases across america just exploded. concealed carry permits have taken over. >> and that is a good thing, you think? >> well, folks think it is. >> grossman insists america's future depends on how each citizen prepares for the threats. do you ever worry these local police officers are going to go out and be looking for terrorists in every small town and pulling people over and looking them up and down and saying, is this a terrorist? >> we're not seeing people's rights being trampled. we're not seeing individuals being abused. we must constantly be alert to that. life is all about balance. >> you fervently do not believe

you are a fear-monger. but you want people to use fear as a weapon? >> the gift of fear, to be aware of the potential for threat and to take action to deal with that. that's the healthy path. >> oppose it or embrace it, grossman's message is popular. he's expanding beyond school, the military and police departments and is training major corporations to be on the lookout for terrorists. >> the wounds of 9/11 had still fresh to us as a nation. we are still both alert and concerned about the prospect that there will be another 9/11. that feeling has not changed at all. but what have we learned in ten years about what works and what doesn't work towards keeping us safe? >> well, what works, it seems, is small, focused, pinpoint-type operations. whether they're geg nuclear weapons, whether they're on a city level like in new york or whether it's like the cia hit teams and military hit teams that went and killed bin laden.

that kind of thing works. what doesn't work is a big conceptual battle that we're going to send in military divisions to spread democracy and fight a war against an ideology with soldiers. that kind of thing didn't work, doesn't work, and may have made our country less safe. >> the decision that america would wage preemptive war, that we would not allow threats to materialize, that we would act militarily and call ourselves justified in doing so before a threat materialized, that has resulted in ten years of constant warfare and more ahead. >> preemption is good if you're trying to stop a dirty bomb attack. preemption is not good when you're talking about invading a country and establishing foreign bases with unknown consequences. >> something that almost by definition you can't control, you can't say ow who it's going to end up.

>> a lot of al qaeda people were killed, but they weren't killed by the conventional war launched in the name of al qaeda. the global war on terrorism was in many ways a global war on fear. how do you fight against terrorism? it's like fighting a war against evil. but in doing it, we allowed ourselves as a nation to become terrorized. hey, look! a shooting star! make a wish! i wish we could lie here forever. i wish this test drive was over, so we could head back to the dealership.

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xxxx good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. tonight, we have an hour to get on top of this tragedy in connecticut, to understand why things like this happen will, of course, take much longer. we have michelle franzen on the scene in newtown, connecticut, clint van sandt, we have

psychiatrist josh winer and psychologist jeff gardier. we have kristin welker, u.s. congresswoman karen mckelthy who entered politics after her husband was killed in a multiple shooting on a commuter train. and james johnson, baltimore county police chief. first we go for an immediate update to my msnbc colleague michelle franzen. michelle, thank you for staying with us tonight. >> hi, kri chris. we're here in newtown area of connecticut just nearby a couple of miles from sandy hook elementary where the tragic shooting took place earlier today. at this hour, hundreds of residents are gathering at a nearby catholic church for a vigil, hold ago prayer for those victims who had lost their lives today, those youngest lives, anywhere between kindergarten and fourth grade where